Case against anti-drone protestors collapses

All charges against 19 anti-drone protestors have been dropped, after the Crown Prosecution Service admitted there was no realistic prospect of conviction.

The 19 were arrested for protesting at UAV Engines Ltd, in Shenstone, Staffordshire, on 6 July 2015, one year after Israel's attacks on Gaza in 2014.

UAV Engines Ltd is wholly owned by Elbit Systems, an Israeli company manufacturing military drones used to attack Gaza.

Speaking after the charges against her were dropped, Hilary Smith, said:

“The Crown Prosecution Service has finally conceded they have no case. Taxpayers' money has been wasted on a police operation and prosecution, all based on a bogus injunction.

“We protested peacefully at a factory owned by this Israeli company involved in drone wars against Palestinians. It is Elbit who should be in the dock.”

Ryvka Barnard, Senior Militarism and Security Campaigner at War on Want, said:

“It would have been a scandal for people to have been made criminals for protesting the manufacture of weapons used in war crimes. This is a victory for the right to protest.

“As long as the UK continues its deadly arms trade with Israel, it remains complicit in crimes against the Palestinian people and the brutality of Israeli Apartheid. We will continue to fight for the rights of Palestinians.”

On 1 July, UAV Engines obtained an injunction to prevent any demonstration within 250 metres of the site entrance. On 27 October, the Birmingham High Court removed the injunction “ab initio”, with the Judge declaring that it “had never existed”, as the company had failed to disclose the history of peaceful protest at the site.

Ends

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